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I've run out of easy things to do round the house during furlough. Started to think I might fill my alcoves with shelves. Nothing fancy, just some planks of wood, supported on batons.
What I'm struggling with is what type of wood do I need? Going to have books on mostly, so need to support that, but nothing more substantial required. Is something like this suitable...
Am looking at probably 8 alcoves, each about 1.5m wide, and probably 2 or 3 shelves in each. So looking at 30 linear meters give or take. Most alcoves are about that depth, and two of them are about double that depth so thought would just put two planks in those ones.
Sound reasonable?
I've done this in a couple of houses using Oak Furniture Board. Given it's glued fingers of oak it's cheaper than solid wood, and you'll never notice the difference.
The best place to source it from will depend on your dimensions I suspect.
As an alternative to batons, I've used aluminium right angled bar. Simple to drill through, and by sitting the wood into the 90 degree angle, it's cleaner than wooden batons.
Google "sagulator", that'll give you an idea of what's possible dimension wise. A 1.5m shelf full of books is a fair weight and over time an unsupported shelf will sag quite a bit.
"Sagulator" - word of the day. Possibly of the week.
Had discounted furniture board, as they tend to look expensive. But once cut to correct width they don't look too far off the money. Good stuff.
Really like the angle iron idea, might go down that route.
There is a shop in Derby that does pine board, similar to the oak above. I've used a sheet of the 38mm, chopped into 5 shelves to make some shelves for an alcove, stained them with osmo oil and they've come up a treat. Not sagged yet with CDs on.
https://www.pineboardsuppliers.co.uk/
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I did similar thing a few years ago and to get a floating shelf just screwed in 2 X1 pine battens round the alcove and then 2 lengths of pine plank for the shelf. MDF or wood board wouldn't have spanned across the alcove without an additional support in the centre. So 2 lengths alongside each other for the shelf. Didn't bother filling in the gap or doinNg anything with it as it's hidden due to the height
I then glued some architrave on the face of the shelf and I think I put some plywood on the bottom to cover up the battens
Sorry don't have any better photos
From What I recall I put a batten in the centre to join the two lengths together but this noggin wasn't supported into the wall
They were sturdy enough though. Just a load of cheap pine from my local timber company, and plywood. MDF might be better though
They look great FB. Almost certainly better than mine will 😉